Should Zwift Include a Velodrome?

Now that we have the Alpe du Zwift, many have wondered if we will get our own velodrome on Zwift. Coming from a track background, I have been asking for a velodrome too! So when BKool invited me to train for a month on their platform, I wanted to see their version. I learned some positive and negative aspects of what BKool offers. What can Zwift learn? And how can they be original in their approach?

Bkool has two velodrome options, Luis Puig and the Galapagar Velodrome, both in Spain. You can opt for video mode or game screen. I prefer the game mode, mostly because it lets you see other riders on screen.

Track Length

Watching a video of the track feels real. However, I think most riders new to a 250 meter track will find it to be a tight circle. It can be dizzying and one can lose where they are on the track. When this happens, you have to rely on the on-screen numbers. For these reasons, a 333 or even a 500 meter track like Roubaix may work better for Zwift.

Here’s what BKool looks like in video mode.

Speeding with Others

Bkool has several options. You can enter either your own program or one started by another rider. I started an hour ride. Here’s the interesting part: if you wait and warm-up for ten minutes, others can join in and ride with you. It is definitely better with some company! I rode a twenty minute effort at my FTP. I also ran a 3 kilometer pursuit effort and a one kilometer effort as well. Speeds seemed realistic. I ran my FTP at 3.6 w/kg and averaged 40.6 kph. My pursuit at 4.6 w/kg averaged 43.9 kph. My kilo at 7 w/kg hit an average of 50.0 kph. When you race against other opponents, you earn points to purchase jerseys for your avatar. Interesting idea.

I did like having a speed that means something to me, and a velodrome course gives me this. 50 kph is the goal I was shooting for. All I need to do is figure out how to do that for another 59 minutes and I’ll be ecstatic. I like this aspect of flat track racing. What does a 14:00 lap of Watopia mean? The average watts tells you some part of how your ride went, but not the whole story. On the track, your numbers are simply more relevant.

Riding with others makes it more competitive and fun.

Race Options… are Limited

Bkool has race options of Keirin, Pursuit, Team Pursuit, and an Elimination race. Sounds great! Guess what? None of those options are available to power meters, only smart trainers. This is unnecessary, there isn’t any elevation changes as there would be in a long steep climb.

Lag Challenges

The worst part of my experiment with Bkool and its velodrome was a seven second lag. When a race started my avatar waited, waited, and then took off. In workout mode, the lag continued to grow from seven seconds to almost thirty seconds. This made intervals impossible to gauge. I have a very fast gaming computer that runs very smoothly with Zwift. It was frustrating to say the least.

Looking Forward

How would a race work? The number of riders must be limited. This may be the reason Zwift has not installed an open velodrome. Until Zwift is ready, I am willing to wait.

Soon, we will have a volcano points race. It will be nine laps long with points each lap over the 40 km distance. The information will be at http://www.z-race.com/about/ If any organizer wants exciting sprint races, I would love to see sprinters line up at the London 1 KM banner sprinting one on one to the finish line. Definitely live, with Nathan shouting himself hoarse.

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About The Author

Zee is an avid, sometimes rabid, fan of Zwift. Her favs include Fabian Cancellara and Kristina Vogel, and she loves studying athletic training, diet with nutrition. Zee was the first graduate of the 2017 Zwift Academy, prefers short races and has a hard time resisting any Zwift challenges. Zee races often and leads a Zwift Group workout on sunday mornings. She is the administrator of ZwiftOff, a support page for weight loss in the Zwift community. Follow her on Strava, send her an email, or find her on Facebook.

7 Comments

I agree. I proposed a time trial bike time qualification, then elimination rounds on regular bikes (no power ups). If enough people would show up on an informal basis, then it could get official support. Anyone game for Friday Night Match Sprints?

Bkool has all these extra rides that zwift doesn’t have but there’s hardly anyone riding in Bkool…….I much prefer Zwift. After a hard ride in Zwift i look forward to my next session. After a hard ride in Bkool – i dread to ride it again. Go figure.

I like the idea of a Zwift Velodrome – the funny thing is I Zwift on rollers and have to look down when going around tight corners so I don’t instinctively steer! But that said the idea of being able to do training with a fixed resistance and speed is something that would excite me.

I’m a cyclocross racer and I would really like a cyclocross course because I find it hard to simulate the sharp changes in effort in resistance between sharp climbs, sand pits, tight corners and carrying momentum through obstacles. The closest I come is riding watching a UCI race on YouTube and trying to replicate the effort / timing.

I’d love to see Zwift offer a velodrome, but offering one that Zwifters would want to ride may be more difficult than you would think. Besides the limited number of racers that can be on the velodrome at the same time, there are other technical issues that Zwift would have to implement. I’ve never ridden Bkool’s velodrome, but I’m curious at how it allows you to ride up or down the track. It’s not something you need to do in pursuit races, but would definitely want to do in mass start and matched sprints.

IRL, if you’re not going fast enough, steering is usually a subtle pointing of the direction you want to go if needed, but speed and and body/bike lean still are bigger factors. Zwift doesn’t use any input from the rider other than power and your relative speed/power and position/distance to other riders to ride around them (or through them–which makes a fixed gear without brakes a lot of fun in Zwift 🙂

So if you’re down in the sprinter’s lane and want to go high up the banking and dive over the top of the rider ahead of you, it would seem you would have to put the power down and your Avatar would go up track. The question is how would Zwift handle the tactics of the rider in front? Two typical tactics are to either put the power down in the sprinter’s lane and create a gap so big that the rider can’t come over the top, or match speed and go up track to counter the move. The challenge is to provide a Zwift user a means to make this choice. Pressing a key or icon doesn’t seem like a practical option. (Perhaps a Kickr Steer?)

Also, I’m not sure if there is really a reason to offer a velodrome unless riders are riding fixed gear bikes. Sure, Zwift’s power-based control slows you down when you reduce cadence, but it’s not the same as a fixed gear. There’s a reason there are no brakes or derailleurs used in real velodrome racing. Tight, flat circuits with relatively small hills similar to the London Classique course are more interesting racing on than an oval velodrome with free-wheeled bikes.

Finally, there could be the need for additional equipment for Zwifting on a velodrome.. I think the wheel off trainers like the Kickr, Neo, and Direto offer a much better road riding experience on Zwift. They won’t work for a fixed gear bike, so a wheel-on interactive trainer with a decent power estimator or separate power meter will be needed for a lot of riders.

Still, I frequently ride my track bike on the Flat Volcano and London courses using a Stages Power Meter and the infamous, Elite Qubo Digital Smart B+ and this setup is very realistic. However, I use a much smaller gear (49×17) because the flat course climbs are a little too long for a racing gear. It’s still a blast and I highly recommend it if you have the equipment.

It would be very difficult to implement I imagine, but I love the idea, especially since I have used BKOOL’s velodrome and it has much to be desired. For starters, ZWIFT could implement a velodrome but only for 500M TTs, 1K, 2K, 3K, and 4K pursuits (given those are all done as close to the measure (black) line as possible in the sprint lane. Then they could make a velodrome available just for training purposes. I would design it so that the rider does 1-2 laps (depending on the length of the track), and then pulls up track to the rail on the 4th corner, then swooping down back into the sprinter’s lane. Then the rider would get a feel of the dynamics of a real track with the fast grade changes. The closest I have got is in Rouvy, where I created a video of me riding on a track and then synchronized that to my uploaded ride in the app. It’s never going to be like a real track, but it could at least simulate some of the experience (visual and grade) so that track racers could stay “in the spirit” of the velodrome during the off season. I’d use it for lap sprint interval workouts.

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